Who should safeguard the integrity of our courts?
Once again, however, it is the federal government that has led the way in this investigation, continuing a long and troubling tradition in Mississippi where the United States Department of Justice is compelled to send in the Federal Bureau of Investigation to conduct the policing of such fundamental matters as civil rights and fairness in our court system through such probes.
Once again, it appears to people both within the state and beyond that we are either incapable of or unwilling to meet these important responsibilities. This was also the situation in a previous judicial bribery case prosecuted by the federal government and involving local attorneys and judges, as well as in the Harrison County jail inmate abuse cases, whose guilty parties have been convicted and are now incarcerated.
Surely, if crimes have been committed, as the guilty pleas suggest, the state’s chief law enforcement officer – Attorney General Jim Hood – and the district attorneys in the local jurisdictions should be actively conducting their own inquiries, with appropriate state charges to be considered and communication made to the public to assure that their constitutional duties are being met.
Sun Herald Editorial
1/20/8
